Thursday column: No ‘Law’ for Latham nuns

It almost sounds like the start of a joke, right? But for Sister Shirley Maloney, the experience has been anything but funny.

Maloney purchased the Magnavox last August and brought it back to the home she shares with Sister Jean Keating. The women, members of the Society of the Sisters of St. Joseph, wanted the videocassette recorder mostly so they could tape their favorite TV shows — programs like “Law & Order” and “Harry’s Law.”

“Many of our good shows are on when we’re in bed,” Maloney said. “We’re early-to-bed people.”

But the $194 machine, which also plays DVDs, has been a headache. Maloney brought it back to the Radio Shack at Latham Farms within a month because the playback of taped programs was jumpy. The machine was repaired — or so it seemed — by folks at the company’s customer-care center.

But in December, Maloney hauled the machine back to Latham Farms because it would not tape shows and would, on its own, switch back and forth between VCR and DVD mode.

That problem wasn’t even fully resolved when the machine developed another problem. It wouldn’t scan in channels — making it unable to properly record shows. A Magnavox technician told Maloney the player needed a new tuner. But Magnavox wouldn’t fix the problem, he said, because the prior work by Radio Shack had invalidated the warranty.

Maloney again schlepped to Latham Farms. There she watched as a Radio Shack store manager tried to scan in channels and failed. Everyone agreed the machine was clearly broken, so off it went to the repair center.

Again.

A few weeks later, in April, Maloney was summoned to the store, where she was told the machine was not fixed because the repair shop “could not duplicate the problem.” And who told her this? The very same store manager who couldn’t get the Magnavox to work.

For Maloney, that was the last straw. She refused to accept the machine — and two months later, when she emailed me, she was still waiting for Radio Shack to install the new tuner. Her VCR-DVD combo sat in limbo.

OK, I know what you’re thinking: Who still buys electronics at Radio Shack, a retailer that has largely shifted to the cell business?

Well, Maloney concedes she and Keating are hardly technophiles. She bought from Radio Shack, she said, because it was one of the few stores where she could still find a VCR.

“We not big consumers of products,” Maloney said. “But we’ve bought from Radio Shack before and been satisfied with them.”

But they were hugely dissatisfied, of course, with the Magnavox.

“To me, this is a justice issue,” Maloney said. “I think as consumers, we have rights. When you buy something, you expect it to work, and if we don’t speak out, these big corporations are going to get away with these things.”

It’s clear to me that Maloney bought a lemon. So it was obvious Radio Shack should replace the machine or refund Maloney’s money.

Radio Shack agreed. After I reached out to the company, a member of its media relations team — perhaps realizing that no company wins by publicly tangling with nuns — promised Maloney a full refund. The company called her on Wednesday to break the good news.

Radio Shack did the right thing. (Photo by Michael Farrell/Times Union)